Just Call It Coffee
by knightshade
Summary: Sam’s tired of losing people she cares about. A little gallows humor, a little angst, a little fluff, and Sam and Daniel friendship.


Title: Just Call It Coffee  
Author: knightshade  
Rating: PG  
Spoilers: Season 5 up to _Between Two Fires_

Disclaimer: I don't own them. They'd outsmart me and escape my clutches anyway if I did. See MGM, Gekko and a host of others.

Summary: Sam's tired of losing people she cares about. A little gallows humor, a little angst, a little fluff, and Sam and Daniel friendship.

Author's Notes: Yeah, I know it's unlikely that the Tollan guards missed the phase shifting device when they caught Jack and Teal'c, but let's say that since they weren't used to crime on Tollana, they weren't very practiced at doing their jobs. And I kind of like the idea that something of the Tollan escaped total annihilation.

**Just Call It Coffee**

Sam poked at the little crystals on the phase shifting device that Colonel O'Neill had pocketed in the chaos of Tollana's final moments. Normally she'd be engrossed in trying to figure out how something like this worked. But she couldn't get her mind off the fact that the Tollan wouldn't want her to be doing this. Narim wouldn't.

"Oh, hey. I think I've got something," Daniel said, turning away from the computer where he had been working to decipher the writing on the device. "You aren't going to believe this, but I think the word next to the blue crystal is 'On.'"

"Well. That would make sense." She tried to smile for his benefit, but Daniel gave her a funny look. There really never was any chance of hiding anything from him.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

She shrugged. "Yeah. It's just … it feels a little like grave robbing."

Daniel lowered his head and nodded slowly. "You don't have to figure it out you know."

"Honestly, I don't think I can." She stared down at the darkened lights on what was now most likely an artifact of a dead culture. It had moved from her realm to Daniel's. The past.

"Do you think we did the right thing?" she asked, not looking at him.

"Sam, Narim made his own choice. We may have arm-twisted him into it, but it was still his choice to make. Who knows how many planets and lives he saved by destroying those weapons." Daniel turned his chair around completely. "They were responsible for the destruction of another civilization. Maybe there's some sort of, I don't know, cosmic karma in it."

Sam set down the phase shift device, overcome with a frustration that had been gnawing at her for far too long. "Do you really think there is such a thing?"

"What? Cosmic karma? I really don't know, Sam." There was something sad in his voice and Sam wondered, not for the first time, if he found his job disheartening at times. Always picking through the wreckage of destroyed civilizations. "Why?" he asked.

"Do you ever feel like you're cursed?"

Daniel blinked and tilted his head. "Cursed?"

"I mean, romantically." Sam sighed and rested her chin on her wrists. "Maybe I have bad karma too or something. Bad things keep happening to the men unfortunate enough to express any interest in me."

"Oh." Daniel left his spot at the computer and pulled up a stool to sit across the table from her. "Well, I don't have the best track record either, Sam. The most recent woman to express interest in me turned out to go by the lovely moniker 'Destroyer of Worlds.'"

Sam couldn't help smiling just a bit. "We're both cursed, aren't we?"

Daniel nodded slowly. "Between Sha're and Sarah, I can't really argue that point."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean …"

"I know." He shrugged and there was a sadness in his eyes that Sam felt guilty about nonetheless. But then he cocked his head and Sam could almost see him putting on the emotional flak jacket. "Unfortunately, the women I love seem to end up Goa'uld bait," he said with a defensive shrug.

"I'm afraid to start listing the men who've cared about me and ended up dead." Sam felt guilty about Narim, but Daniel was right that at least it was his choice. It wasn't as bad as pulling the trigger herself. She wasn't having nightmares about Narim the way she had for months after shooting Martouf.

Daniel rested his chin on his hand. "You know, it's too bad we can't combine our curses somehow. I could, um, get them turned into Goa'uld hosts and then you could get them killed. We could rid the universe of a lot of Goa'uld that way."

Sam closed her eyes and sank into her chair. She didn't want to be the black widow. She was tired of seeing people she cared about dying. It hurt too much.

He backed down immediately, eyes brimming with concern. "I'm sorry. Bad gallows humor." He moved the phase shifter out of the way and folded his hands around hers. "Look, Sam, it's not you and it's not me. Our job puts us in a lot of dangerous situations. A lot of bad things happen to us period. Unfortunately that means the people we care about tend to be in dangerous situations too."

She knew that, but it helped to have someone else say it. She looked into those earnest eyes of his and nodded, already feeling a little bit better. "I'm just so tired of losing people."

"Me too." He squeezed her hands and Sam was grateful for the contact. Sometimes she didn't know what she'd do if she didn't have Daniel to talk to. Their lives could be so isolating sometimes.

He gave her hands a quick pat and then picked up the Tollan device, irreverently tossing it into a drawer. "Time for a break. Care to join me for coffee in the cafeteria?"

"You sure you want to do that?" she teased to let him know that she was okay.

"I think I'll risk it."

Sam smiled a little, relieved a bit to have the phase shifter out of sight. She came around the edge of the lab table and he put a hand on her shoulder.

"Besides, I was going to stop by the locker room and grab a bullet proof vest first."

"Hey!" She gave him a playful little bump with her hip.

"Well, I was going to stop by my office and grab one of those Unas neck guards for you too."

"Oh, well in that case, it's a date."

"Uh. Let's not tempt fate." Daniel smiled and pulled the door open for her. "Let's just call it coffee."

---------------  
-knightshade  
May 26, 2007


End file.
